Art as inspiration

I’m about to start redesigning my tiny apartment (I should say designing it for the first time) and I’m going to be using a commissioned painting from a friend as the basis for the entire redesign. Kim, I was inspired by your fireplace post the other day and all the amazing paintings featured over the mantles, and I was wondering if you guys could do a post featuring rooms designed around artwork as the central theme! The only direction I’ve really given my artist friend (who’s amazing – she’s fresh out of art school and doesn’t have a website I can link you to yet but she will one day and it will be fabulous!) is that she should have fun with the painting, and the surreal, braindrain style that’s all hers – and maybe indulge my love of orange.

This proved to be a bit of a tough request, having not seen Aja’s painting (it’s still in the works). I found some photos with art that had orange in it and included some with other colours as well (since the selection was minimal). Hope this helps you Aja, and please send us a photo of your painting when it’s completed!

Oh great post! Aja, congratulations on having an artist friend! And it’s absolutely the right way to go – designing a room around art. How fun for your friend too, to have the freedom to create. Sometimes when I get a commission, I get too many instructions.

I love these pics and now want to redo my place! My favs are e-Architeckt and the Alison Spear. Aja, please post your apartment when the painting is complete!

I’ve been staring at this post all day at work (which has been crazy, so this has been even better) and I can’t even say how much I love this! thank you! I think my favorite might be the Alison Spear or the Domino. But I love the Elle Decor and those pillows, and the Betty Wasserman. Oh, okay, really, I love all these. Thank you so much, Kim! You are awesome.

I’ll definitely take pictures of my apartment after the redesign. you guys rock. thank you again!